joan of arc (girl with sword ▬▬ι═══════ﺤ)

uh. yeah. Joan of Arc is THE historical-legendary-whatever figure of all time. Even though I have a weird fascination with her (which I’ll write about LATER), I’m clearly not the only one. Jeanne d’Arc has been the muse of fashion, music, literature, and film since her existence basically?

fashion

Jean Paul Gaultier’s 1994 spring collection featured several looks with corseted gauzy cotton muslin dresses paired with chain mail and armor plating (Vogue). Even though the majority of the outfits in the collection fit into the “global village chic” that Vogue describes as Gaultier’s M.O., within that there’s a definite corner that Joan occupies in a not-very-subtle way.

Even less subtlety, Joan of Arc was one of the key inspirations (along with the Romanov family) for Alexander McQueen’s 1998 fall show. Unlike Gaultier’s light, cherubic, romantic interpretation of Joan, McQueen presented a darker version, that—while tougher in silhouettes and fabrics—also incorporated a clinical sterileness with its skull-tight medieval-inspired updos, bleached hair, and shaven eyebrows. Multiple models wore dresses with with armor attached, or whole dresses made of chainmail. The finale of the show was one of the most gruesome visual depictions of Joan of Arc, featuring a model in a red beaded dress that covered her face. As she stood on the stage, a circle of fire grew around her, reminiscent of Joan’s last moments as she was burned at the stake.

 

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After McQueen’s show, the 2018 Met Gala was the next big moment for Joan of Arc in the fashion world. Anna Wintour (the real life Meryl-Streep-Devil-Wears-Prada) chooses the theme for the function every year, with 2018’s theme being “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” Zendaya, who hasn’t had a bad outfit since Disney Channel Original tv show Shake It Up, went for a Versace Joan of Arc look. Unlike the previous example, Zendaya’s chainmail dress was offset with sheer fabric embroidered with silver sequins for a more feminine look. She also wore a bobbed wig reminiscent of Joan’s blunt hair in the iconic 1903 Albert Lynch painting Jeanne d’Arc.

music

More recently in the stratosphere, Chappell Roan’s Joan of Arc-inspired performance and costuming at the 2024 VMAs has been getting a lot of highly deserved buzz. During her performance, she wore a full armored look with Dr. Martens while fighting off soldiers with a sword. Prior to the show, she had on a sheer gown with a 17th century sage green robe draped over it. And when she accepted the award for “Best New Artist,” she was wearing a chainmail dress (somewhat similar to one of Alexander McQueen’s) designed by Julien Dossena for Rabanne. Even though her discography doesn’t include any references to Joan of Arc, it was an interesting lens to place on top of “Good Luck, Babe!”

(besides, Chappell’s far from the first singer to dress up as Joan)

something so personal about kate bush, fiona apple and lorde all dressing up as joan of arc pic.twitter.com/QRDce9hu7O

— feral (@ncrmalpeople) February 11, 2021

• • •

Kate Bush, in particular, wrote about Joan of Arc in her song “Joanni” off her 2005 album Aerial, and, God love her, but I hate this song. (I’ve listened to it about twenty times in the making of this post and the only part I really like is at the end where it sounds like Miss Piggy humming aggressively) (anyway). Kate Bush hasn’t said anything specific about this song in interviews, but it’s obvious that Joan of Arc is its subject. Throughout the verses, she describes the battlefield—first as calm, then as storm—and in the chorus, sings:

Joanni, Joanni wears a golden cross

And she looks so beautiful in her armour

Joanni, Joanni blows a kiss to God

She never wears a ring on her fingers

Even though the verses and chorus cover what most people think of when they think of Joan of Arc (as they often do), the picture comes off romanticized and almost? docile?

In the bridge and outro, however, Kate sings, “Elle parle à Dieu et aux anges / Dans ses prières,” which translates to “She speaks to God and angels / In her prayers,” and:

Come Saint Catherine

Come Saint Margaret

She needs you both

The voices, the voices of fire

Sing with me little sister

The voices, the voices, the voices

(imagine this is in French too and then also translated) (it was taking up a lot of space and stressing me out.)

I think the bridge and outro help balance out the hot-warrior-Joan-of-Arc parts and put them on a more even playing field with the weird-girl-who-heard-the-voice-of-God-Joan-of-Arc. (also worth noting, Kate Bush is a prominant influence for Chappell Roan, and maybe even the reason she pulled the Joan of Arc out of the bag for the VMAs.)

• • •

The most popular song referencing Joan of Arc by far is The Smiths’ “Bigmouth Strikes Again” of their 1986 album The Queen is Dead. Although countless context clues throughout the song make it clear that Morrissey is singing about himself and not another figure when he sings in first-person, his comparison to Joan of Arc blurs the lines between them. Morrissey has popped up in the tabloids and the news since the start of his career for talking badly about the Royal family, politicians, other musicians, and really anything that could cause a controversy, so it makes sense that he might see something of himself in Joan (even though they have literally nothing in common).

In the pre-chorus, Morrissey sings—

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt

Now I know how Joan of Arc felt

As the flames rose to her Roman nose

And her Walkman started to melt (Ah)

—creating two images.

In image number one, Morrissey is painting himself sarcastically as Joan of Arc, the violence he threatens at the beginning of the song meant to be divinely-inspired just like her actions were, with the Walkman (and later the hearing aid) he mentions serving as references to voices that Joan of Arc heard. Despite speaking the truth, Morrissey-as-Joan has come under fire and is seen as only a “bigmouth” for his efforts.

In image number two, Morrissey paints Joan of Arc as the quintessential, timeless bigmouth. Not only is she represented coming under fire for her beliefs from youth (via the Walkman) to old age (via the hearing aid) without changing, she also somehow does this in a way that wins the fascination of the multitudes.

honorable mentions that you should only listen to if you hate music:

• “Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor” by Aly & AJ of “Potential Breakup Song” fame,
• and “Joan of Arc” by Leonard Cohen

literature

Continuing down the list of people who have had a personal obsession with her, in 1896, Mark Twain wrote Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte, recounting Joan’s life.

(moment of truth—I have not read this and didn’t know anything about it before writing this post… but also. me and Mark Twain are the same. mentally we’re both writing Joan of Arc fanfiction and publishing it in Harper’s Magazine.)

Initially published anonymously in Harper’s Magazine, Personal Recollections was meant to make a name for itself apart from Mark Twain’s, which was more or less synonymous with comedy. In the novel, Twain opts for writing from the perspective of Joan’s page, Sieur Louis de Contes, providing a “first-hand” account of the 1428-1429 siege of Orléans and Charles VII’s crowning without sacrificing the aura of mystery surrounding Joan.

Christina Zwarg, in her essay titled “Woman as Force in Twain’s Joan of Arc: The Unwordable Fascination,” describes how Twain’s choice to make De Contes (an unreliable and jealous man) the narrator of the story is ironic—as he is yet another treacherous man surrounding Joan and her narrative (Zwarg 64). By using De Contes as the documenter of Joan’s life, Twain is winking at readers and historians alike—challenging the idea that any information we have about Joan can be trusted with the biases of those who recorded her history.

film

Although there have been a handful of films and miniseries about Joan of Arc (or featuring her), none of them have been terribly accurate (according to the one Reddit search I did), and only two are worth talking about.

The first being Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 silent film, La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, or The Passion of Joan of Arc.

The second is the approximately fifteen minutes of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure that include Joan. (this was just in my notes) (I don’t really have anything else to say about it).

So about The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Dreyer’s film, unlike many stories about Joan of Arc, focuses only on her trial when the English-loyal French clergymen convicted her of heresy. This decision to cut to the end of Joan’s story, rather than exploring when she started hearing voices or when she was leading the French in battle is so Logan (2017)-coded.

Almost the entire film is shot in extreme closeups, and because it’s silent, the actor’s expressions and emotions carry the story. Renée Jeanne Falconetti, who played Joan, was mainly a stage actress, but her performance as Joan is one of the most celebrated in film history. (I would say easily over half the movie is just shots of Joan’s face as she reacts to her trial, torture, and impending execution).

(also Dreyer apparently shot 276,000 feet of film for it to be edited down to around 7,800 feet in the original release) (but The Passion of Joan of Arc was lost to like two separate fires so I guess he made a good call shooting extra).

my thoughts

Joan of Arc holds a fascination with me that’s only rivaled by Hamlet’s Ophelia. (demonstrated by the five essays I wrote about Ophelia in college literally whenever I could get away with it)

(side note: why was I supposed to read Hamlet that many times in college when I’m pretty sure it’s The Play that high schools make students read???)

The Intrigue (that affects me and likely everyone else) is that she’s literally just a girl. But also maybe she’s a little crazy and she’s in touch with the divine. Since the age of thirteen she said she heard the voices of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret and the archangel Michael and would see them multiple times a day. When bells rang, she would drop to her knees and have visions which led her to dress in men’s clothing, learn how to ride horseback and fight with a sword, and appeal to Charles VII on behalf of France.

All of this when she was a seventeen-year-old peasant girl by the way.

(the only thing that makes me feel even more insane is that Wikipedia says that she fulfilled an alleged prophecy from Merlin? WHO IS A FICTIONAL CHARACTER?) (but the prophecy said that a virgin carrying a banner would put an end to France’s suffering, and many more prophecies like this existed) (from actual people I guess). (even if Joan fabricated some of the spiritual experiences she had, she was incredibly smart to portray herself in the light of these preexisting prophecies to be taken seriously).

Ending point, because I actually think I could keep writing about this forever—um. Joan of Arc is cool because she has a sword and I also have a sword.